20th Anniversary: Fastest Street Car Shootout

Where were you in 1992? If you answered the challenge printed in the Sept. ’92 issue of HOT ROD, then you are one of 26 guys with a car who made the trip to Memphis. But you didn’t come to enjoy barbeque and Graceland; you were getting ready to throw down at the inaugural HOT ROD Fastest Street Car in America Shootout.

2/22The diversity of the cars was amazing at the first fastest Street Car Shootout.

Like all things that are now bigger than life, this shootout and racing series had humble beginnings. In this case, it was a few people tossing around ideas. There were quite a few folks claiming to have the fastest street car—a doorslammer that saw some street use and perhaps some street-racing action. When HOT ROD staffer Joe Pettit returned from a street-car challenge in Atlanta, he waxed lyrical about how unbelievable some of the cars were. Assembled on the couch in then editor Jeff Smith’s Sunset Boulevard office, we staffers shared what we had heard: 9-second Nova from the Southeast, a trio of 8-second Camaros from Detroit, and a host of other superfast cars. We also had an argument about what was and was not a legitimate street car (that discussion only got more passionate as the years went on).

It was clear what was needed: one race with a winner who would walk away with the bragging rights of being the fastest street car in America. Bragging rights bestowed by the staff of HOT ROD magazine. Show up or shut up. Run heads-up and deal with parts breakage, as well as street-racer mind games. From that couch in Jeff’s office, we launched the idea of the HOT ROD magazine Fastest Street Car Shootout.

We needed an organization that could run the shootout for us. Jeff Smith talked to Richard Small, who was the marketing manager at Flowmaster at the time. Flowmaster sponsored a racing series run by Russ and Ivars Smiltniek under the moniker of National Muscle Car Association (NMCA). It mostly catered to stock and mildly modified muscle cars, but it didn’t take much convincing to have Russ and Ivars add this shootout to one of their scheduled race dates. We published the challenge in the Sept. ’92 issue of HOT ROD magazine.

3/22Flowmaster and C.A.R.S. Inc. came together to create a Top 10 at the shootout, rewarding all seven of the second-round winners plus the three quickest second-round losers. Here are all Top 10 original bad-asses in their yellow satin jackets.

When we arrived at the track in Memphis, we found 26 cars ready to duke it out. The pits were telling of the diversity in the group, with rigs ranging from tattered open trailers to a tractor-trailer rig with air conditioning and power tools. The participants were as curious about each other as we were about them, trying to determine who was a player and who would be on the trailer before the first round. This was every bit a street race held during broad daylight on a racetrack—right down to spectators trading cash in the grandstands after each pass.

Hardware ranged from pro-built, big-inch motors and Lenco transmissions to budget-built small-blocks and Powerglides. There was also every type of power-adder on site: nitrous, blowers, and turbos. There were even a couple all-motor deals.

There was no clear perfect combo at this first race, as the rules and competitors were all new to the game. Within just a few short years, nitrous cars would have the advantage. Interestingly, today, the Pro class in Fastest Street Car racing is dominated by turbo cars.

Unlike at a street race, many racers were willing to help each other with repairs and spare parts to make the next round. In fact, the biggest turn-around in this first race happened because of one racer helping another. Max Carter’s ’66 Chevy II was hooking a hard right on the launch. The problem turned out to be a cracked axlehousing. Fellow racer Danny Scott welded the housing at the track, which cured the problem and let Max motor past Danny’s Camaro in the third round of eliminations.

The only things more impressive than the elapsed times were the parts casualties, a result of people turning up the power in whatever way they could to meet the steep competition. The efforts to rebuild and patch damage to make the next round of competition were heroic. It was the first time we’d seen a non-professional race team rebuild an engine in a parking lot overnight, as Ken Anderson and friends replaced pistons and rings in his big-block Malibu. Dave Lemmond swapped out his exploded Powerglide trans for a spare borrowed from Ken Anderson in less than an hour. Ironically, Ken knocked Dave out of the competition in the next round. Jim Treppa sprayed the top end of the track with ATF when his TH400 let go, and Joe Yatooma blew chunks of engine block all over the place. None of these guys had the tractor-trailer and big corporate sponsorship that some teams enjoy today. This kind of damage might put the car on blocks for quite a while, and, it was a testament to how important this shootout was to the racers.

Like a 20-year high-school reunion, we were curious to know what happened to the original participants in the HOT ROD magazine Fastest Street Car Shootout. A few of them we had kept up with, at least for a time. Second place winner Danny Scott would build two ’66 Chevelles in the early history of Fastest Street Car Racing and would take home top honors. By the second year, the field was split into two classes: Pro Street for tubbed cars and Super Street that was limited to 10.5-inch-wide slicks. Within just a few years, both classes would see 7-second runs and 200-mph trap speeds. (Freiburger recalls John Dianna, then the head honcho of HOT ROD, telling him, “You’ll never run 8s on a 10-inch tire—I know, I’ve tried it.” That goal seemed absurd in 1992.) The shootout also became a series with points accumulation in addition to the one definitive race where HOT ROD would name the Fastest Street Car in America. Mike Moran built a series of cars and racked up numerous wins and records, probably spending more time with the series than any other original racer. Greg Csernai won the Super Street class in 1993 with the same gray Mustang and same motor he came to the first race with. Randy Lambert and Jeff Chandler continued to race, but found they stood a better chance of putting on a crowd-pleasing show than taking home a win. One of the most vocal advocates for Fastest Street Car racing was Rick Dyer. While he never won a shootout, he was at the races year after year and put on one heck of a show. Sadly, we’ve lost a couple of people too: Stan Shaw and Steve Grebeck.

It’s hard to believe the first shootout happened 20 years ago, and it’s even harder to digest all that has elapsed in the sport during those two decades. The current success of the NMCA is a testament to long-term appeal of Fastest Street Car racing. One thing is for sure, the shootout forever changed the face of heads-up racing.

The First Contenders

Twenty years later, it was impossible even for us to name from memory all of the original contenders in the Fastest Street Car shootout. Many of these names continued to compete for years. All of them have moved out of Fastest Street Car racing now, although a couple of them are considering making comebacks with their original cars.

Name

Vehicle

Best e.t.

Best mph

Max Carter

’66 Chevy II

8.383

160.85

Danny Scott

’67 Camaro

8.490

160.59

Rod Saboury

’57 Corvette

8.524

155.97

Steve Johnson

’81 Trans Am

8.525

163.22

Billy Edwards

’66 Chevelle

8.564

162.63

Rick Dyer

’69 Camaro

8.810

152.60

Mike Moran

’79 Pinto

8.848

152.77

Ken Anderson

’78 Malibu

8.905

152.85

Mark Tate

’67 Camaro

8.933

155.11

Marino Cintron

’87 Regal

9.050

151.00

Joe Yatooma

’69 Camaro

9.065

146.53

Vito Patierno

’69 Chevelle

9.114

124.24

Gene Deputy

’89 Mustang

9.161

152.54

David Lemmond

’67 Chevy II

9.312

151.03

Steve Grebeck

’92 Mustang

9.461

146.69

George Poynter

’61 Corvette

9.482

149.60

Greg Csernai

’86 Mustang

9.503

144.97

Todd Testerman

’78 Malibu

9.582

140.40

Jim Treppa

’68 Camaro

9.647

135.70

Randy Lambert

’67 Impala

9.724

140.80

Jeff Dean

’74 Nova

9.879

138.73

Jim Huber

’69 Chevelle

10.147

136.46

Stacy Nowak

’77 Camaro

10.944

124.80

Jeff Chandler

’68 Chevelle

11.678

77.45

Stan Shaw

’57 Chevy

11.810

117.83

Walter Colson

’65 Mustang

12.120

N/A

NMCA History

The first HOT ROD Fastest Street Car Shootout was held in conjunction with the National Muscle Car Association’s (NMCA) annual event at Memphis Motorsports Park and sponsored by Flowmaster. The NMCA was owned and run by Russ and Ivars Smiltniek of Comp Cams and Racing Head Service. With the introduction of the Fastest Street Car scene and HOT ROD’s promotion machine, the organization got too big for the Smiltnieks to operate in addition to their other businesses, and Petersen Publishing, HOT ROD’s parent company, took control of the NMCA. Petersen/Primedia ran the NMCA for a decade or so under the direction of John Dianna, but when the company got a new owner it decided it didn’t want to be in the event business, and sold the NMCA to Tony Defeo of the National Street Car Association (NSCA). At the same time, the PRO series was started by ProMedia, which was run by Steve Wolcott, formerly the publisher of Petersen’s 5.0 Mustang magazine; James Lawrence, a former 5.0 Mustang staffer; former HOT ROD editor Rob Kinnan; and Charlie Harmon, formerly the marketing manager at National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis Raceway Park. Eventually, ProMedia took control of the NMCA.

Wolcott and Harmon operate it to this day, and they just created NMCA West for West Coast racers. With an August 2012 event at Pomona, and the chance to win NHRA Wally trophies, excitement is high. The core of the NMCA series, though, is still based in the Midwest and East Coast.

According to Harmon, “The biggest difference today is technology. The turbochargers and centrifugal blowers have really advanced, and of course, electronic fuel injection allows it all to work efficiently.”

Today’s 250-mph Pro Street cars have no “street” left in them—they’re essentially Pro Mod cars. That’s the progression of racing, and if you don’t like it, there are many more NMCA classes that feature real street cars. One of the most popular is True Street, where, just like the first Fastest Street Car Shootout in Memphis, competitors must make a 30-ish-mile drive before racing.

The NMCA has changed in the last 20 years, that’s for sure. But we think it’s for the better (especially better than the mid-’90s eighth-mile racing). Check out NMCADigital.com for more information.

Max Carter: Words from the First Winner

My dad and I had the Nova, which started out as a more-show-than-go-project. It was a neat-looking car that looked fast, but in reality couldn’t back up its looks. We cruised it around, and the 454 with dual Dominators would make your eyes water from the fuel fumes. We tinkered with it at the track trying to get a respectable performance out of it. The sad part of it was that even if we did get it to run quick, there wasn’t any place to race heads-up except the street. A quicker pass at the track only meant a dial-in change from your opponent. I never was too enthused about bracket racing.

22/22Max Carter (with bottle) and his dad John (to the right of Max) were the top dogs at the end of the weekend in 1992. Max emerged as an unlikely winner, laying down a best time of 8.383 at 160.85 mph.

My dad found a flyer from a guy in Atlanta named Bill Coogle. He had a heads-up race with some loose rules for Pro Street cars. Just what we were dreaming about! We spent countless hours on the Nova in preparation to finally race without a dial-in. We showed up in Atlanta not knowing what to expect. We didn’t know if we would be racing 10-second grocery getters or Pro Stock cars with flashlights for headlights. It turned out to be a lot of both. Our race day was all too short, as a broken lifter chewed a lobe off of our camshaft. There was a huge amount of bickering and fighting going on that day, and every once in a while a race would break out. I have never seen so many angry people screaming at a race promoter.

After that race, I built a 557-cubic-inch motor. It had a Bowtie block, aluminum Bowtie heads, a billet 4.375-stroke crank, Leonard intake with two Gary Williams 1,150 dominators and a two-stage Compucar nitrous system.

When the article in HOT ROD magazine came out announcing the Fastest Street Car Shootout in 1992 and showed the heavy hitters predicted to attend, I was pumped to say the least! I was at the track tuning as much as possible. I have to say that a month and a half before the race I was confident that it would be difficult to beat me. I had the Nova running pretty awesome at our local eighth-mile track, Ohio Valley Raceway. The track owners Sherril and Billy Huff treated me great and let me test whenever I could.

I had the car running dead straight—nice wheelstand and would trip the 60-foot beams on the back tires and still have 1.15 60-foot times. It was running 5.0s at about 140 mph in the eighth. Plus, it was dead-on consistent. It would run whatever you tuned it to, 10 times in a row. I felt great about everything and was ready to pack up and go to Memphis. All of the sudden the car was all over the track. Then the transmission crunched itself. I put in a spare tranny, and made a few not-so-straight runs and then smashed that trans also, taking the converter with it. I left for Memphis with no trans or converters. My dad left for TCI with our broken parts. The guys at TCI were waiting for them and immediately went to work cutting open the converter and tearing open the broken tranny. They fixed them both, and my dad headed to the Memphis track so we could get it running for qualifying.

I couldn’t believe what happened next. In qualifying, the car was getting worse with every run. I had to be in and out of the throttle, or do a lot of bodywork on it when we got home. The engine also was not running right; it didn’t have any power. I tried to get my dad’s attention to both problems, but his mind was occupied elsewhere. After the next run, I made sure he knew the car was unraceable. We pulled the rearend out, and both axletubes had broken all of the welds holding them in place to the centersection. You could take the ladder bar and just rotate the axletube all the way around.

I took off looking for someone with a welder in their truck. I rode my bike down and asked Scott Shafiroff if he had a stick welder in his 49-foot trailer. He looked at me and I think recognized me, as I was still wearing my fire pants. I’ll never forget...he looked at me and said, “Buddy, I ain’t even got an open-end wrench to loan you.” Danny Scott had a welder and he welded my axletubes. The problem was that we only had time to line it up by sight and weld it. Then we found a nitrous line that was disconnected and causing the power problems. We patched it all back together and squirreled our way through eliminations. We were going rounds, but it wasn’t anything like I had planned. I had the Nova running like a beast just a few weeks before the race, and now we were just making rounds. I had planned to put down a high-7-second e.t. in the final, but there was just no way of making it happen the way the car was handling and running. On the brighter side, I was so relieved to get through the final with Rod Saboury. Rod is a super great guy. I was really tired and just so thankful that we were able to MacGyver our way through eliminations that day!

I am so proud of all the attention given to our car by HOT ROD magazine. The entire staff was always so cool and receptive to ideas about the future of Fastest Street Car racing. There wouldn’t be the huge participation in this class without all the writers and editors at HOT ROD listening and seeing what was going on, and then guiding it on a sustainable path. It is hard to think that this class started out as a couple “run whatcha brung” races and then crafted itself into fastest street car racing all across the country.